MANILA, Philippines (Updated 6:27 p.m.) — The Department of Health is changing how it relays the latest COVID-19 information in the country to "better guide" the public, its spokesperson said a day after announcing the DOH will no longer release social media updates on coronavirus cases.
In an interview with TeleRadyo on Tuesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said no information will be lost when the agency implements its new reporting system next year.
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Vergeire said the DOH will issue advisories that include reported COVID-19 cases as well as "condensed analysis" every day.
"So ang lalabas sa amin ngayon ay hindi na ‘yung case bulletin ngunit para pong analysis to better guide our public kung ano ang dapat gawin at ano ‘yung nangyayari talaga dito sa ating bansa with regards to COVID-19," the health official said.
(So we will no longer release case bulletins, but we will instead issue analyses to better guide the public on what needs to be done and what the COVID-19 situation in the country is.)
According to Vergeire, some of the details included in case bulletins have been found to be of little use to the public.
"We have assessed itong case bulletin. ‘Yung pong mga datos na nakapaloob dito hindi na masyadong ginagamit ng mga tao at ‘yung messaging ay hindi po nakukuha masyado," she said.
(The public doesn't really use some of the data in the bulletins and the messaging isn't really communicated as well as hoped)
Daily bulletins contain latest information on new infections, fatalities, recoveries, number and status active cases, positivity rate, and healthcare utilization.
Palace: Focus is now on vaccination
The Palace on Tuesday said the shift reflects a shift in focus to vaccination,
"The reason behind that is right now, we are really ramping up our vaccinations and the focus right now is on the vaccination. We have a target that by (the) first quarter of next year, we will achieve the 77 million Filipinos fully vaccinated," Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, acting presidential spokesman, said at a press briefing.
"So, we will focus on the vaccination and by focusing on the vaccination... we may see that the cases of COVID will be mild and asymptomatic only," he added.
Nograles said while vaccination does not stop the transmission of the virus, it prevents severe and critical cases, hospitalization, and deaths.
"So, our focus (would really) be the vaccination rate and looking at hospital utilization rate, looking at critical and severe and even moderate cases. So that will be our basis," he added.
Nograles said the public could still find the pandemic numbers through the DOH's COVID-19 tracker website.
COVID tracker 'enough for now'
"COVID tracker will suffice for now in providing the regular updates to our countrymen and the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) will continue to monitor that. We will continue to monitor all of these indicators that we have been looking at from the very start up to now," the Palace official said.
"We continue to monitor the numbers, we continue to report to the public although in a different format...We continue to look at the active cases, the new cases...only the format of reporting will change," he added.
Some senators balked at the agency’s decision, which comes as the country sees an increase in new COVID-19 cases and prepares for the spread of the Omicron variant.
On Tuesday, the DOH reported 421 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 2,839,111. Of the figure, only 0.3% were active cases. — Gaea Katreena Cabico with reports from The STAR/Alexis Romero